Archive for March, 2007

In conjunction with the release of Zotero 1.0 Beta 4, we have launched a new series of screencasts. Along with our textual documentation, these short screencasts offer a quick way for you to see how Zotero can streamline your research process. Take a few moments to check them out, and learn a bit more about how Zotero can work for you.

We’re pleased to announce that a new release of Zotero, 1.0 Beta 4, is now available. Existing users who downloaded from zotero.org can update manually via Tools->Add-ons from within Firefox. We recommend that all others, including new users as well as those who originally downloaded the extension from the Mozilla website, use the Download button on our home page or to the right of this blog post. It is highly recommended that you back up your Zotero data directory before upgrading to the latest version.

Beta 4 includes many new or improved site translators, in-page annotation and highlighting features, five additional language localizations, and many bug fixes. We are also excited to announce a new alpha version of our Microsoft Word plug-in. If you have Alpha 1 you will need to download and install the new version (Mac, Windows). See the documentation for installation instructions.

We have also added a better method for taking snapshots of web pages, which on some platforms has a conflict with the Flash plugin. To avoid problems, please adjust your Flash Security Settings.

For a comprehensive overview of changes in this release, see the changelog. Over the next week we will highlight many of the new features in this blog.

Thanks to the efforts of the University of Manchester Computing department, the new XML trial version of the online public access catalog Copac is now Zotero-compatible. Containing over 30 million records, this tremendous resource provides free access to the merged online catalogs of major UK and Irish university research libraries, plus the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

Copac offers an excellent model for other data providers, self-publishers, and bloggers who wish to make their content available to Zotero. By embedding COinS tags in their library records, the Copac developers have made it possible for Zotero to automatically capture the bibliographic information contained in them. The Copac XML database can be accessed via the Copac v3 experimental interface, which is scheduled to go live on March 28.

We would like to know what citation and bibliography styles people in the Zotero community are yearning for. Currently Zotero generates bibliographies in MLA, APA, and three varieties of Chicago styles (and an ASA format is under development).

Ultimately we intend to offer a utility which makes the process of developing new styles much more user friendly, but for the time being it is a bit more technical than our average user can muster. We are looking to put together more citation and bibliography styles that appeal to a broad audience. Post your requests for new formats in this thread. One of our programmers is going to be hammering out a handful of these styles and now is your chance to have your voice heard.